Sato's beaked whale
Berardius minimus
Sato's beaked whale lives far offshore and is rarely seen, so no sighting is ever a promise.
Near Threatened (IUCN, 2020) means it is close to qualifying as threatened, and the assessment is based on a low estimated population.
Length
About 6.3 to 6.9 m (21 to 23 ft) for physically mature individuals measured so far. Only a handful have been measured, and adult females are not yet described.
Weight
Not recorded in the sources we opened.
Next to a person
About as long as four adults lying head to toe. Roughly two-thirds the length of its larger relative, Baird's beaked whale.
What it eats
Not yet known directly. No stomach-content data have been published. Chemical studies suggest it feeds in offshore, open-water food webs, and related beaked whales eat fish and squid.
Around people
Calm, give space
How it lives
Sato's beaked whale is almost black, with a pale patch on the beak and round white scars left by cookiecutter sharks. Its beak is short, about 4% of body length, compared with 5.81% in Baird's beaked whale. It is a deep diver that is thought to feed by suction. It is reported in small groups of both sexes.
Where it goes
Movements are not yet known. Records come from the southern Sea of Okhotsk near Hokkaido, the Commander Islands and the southeastern Bering Sea, and it appears to live over deep, offshore water.
We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.
Populations
IUCN Near Threatened (2020), based on a low estimated population, and a 2026 study notes the trend as decreasing. It was only recognised as a separate species in 2019, and no population estimate was given in the sources we opened. Known mainly from the western North Pacific around northern Japan, with a few strandings in the eastern Bering Sea.
Meet it respectfully
This is a deep-water beaked whale that is very hard to find, and beaked whales in general are shy. We never chase, approach closely or try to attract it. If one is ever seen, we keep distance, keep noise low and let it decide what happens.
Fun fact
Tap the bulb to light it up.
It was formally described as a new species in 2019, although Hokkaido whalers had long known a smaller black form.
Mature adults measured so far are 6.3 to 6.9 m long, against about 10 m for Baird's beaked whale.
Scientists say they still do not know what adult females look like.
Sato's beaked whale in the Ocean Atlas
Places we have researched where this animal is recorded. It is never guaranteed, and some places are for watching from the boat only.
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JapanSources for this page
- Yamada and others, 2019, Scientific Reports (original species description)
- Hokkaido University, 2019
- Stable isotope study of Baird's and Sato's beaked whales, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 2026
- Society for Marine Mammalogy, list of marine mammal species
- GBIF, IUCN Red List category for Berardius minimus
- Wikipedia, Sato's beaked whale (cites IUCN assessment by Brownell, 2020)
Facts checked 5 October 2026. Photos: Unsplash licence, or Creative Commons as shown on each photo.
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